The present invention is directed to a device that aids a nurse in the preparation of setting up intravenous therapy. At least ten million of the more than forty million Americans hospitalized each year receive some form of intravenous therapy, such as blood transfusion, fluid and electrolyte replacement or total parental nutrition. Many things may go wrong with such therapy, such as, for example, sepsis. In effect, the IV is a conduit through the protective skin for an infection, which, therefore, must be guarded against. Any such tube inserted into the body, whether IV, nasogastric feeding, intra-arterial monitoring line or urinary catheter, deserves a maximum in antiseptic technique. Yet, proof is extant showing that hospital personnel are often delinquent in meeting necessary sanitary and hygenic precautions. Studies have found that 8% of nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infections are ascribed to use of intravascular lines. This translates into an estimated 50,000 device-related septisemias in the United States each year. Of 97 nosocomial epidemics in the world literature between 1965 and 1978, fully 1/3 derived from infusion therapy. Cultures done on catheter or needle used in IV therapy are positive for bacterial isolation in 33% of infusions during the first 12 hours of infusion. Studies have shown the link between thrombophlebitis in patients to the bacterial contamination which has been ascribed to non-aseptic techniques during cannula insertion. It is also a common problem to have nurses use unsanitary techniques in the handling of infiltrated IV lines and clot-blocked IV catheters, as well as catheter-bags needing emptying.
Nurses must set up IV solutions, lines, and needles, and to connect them all before attempting to insert the needle and cannula through the skin, and often have no assistants. Thus, they are forced to take short cuts because of time constraints. It is common for a nurse to remove the cap of a needle with her teeth, then reinsert the needle into the cap held between the teeth. Nurses are also wont to drop tubings, which are left to swing in the air, while the nurse clears a blocked line with a syringe, after which clearing, the tubing is reinserted in the needle or catheter. Ofttimes, the tubing is held under the armpit or draped over the IV pole while the needle or catheter is checked. The problem is, simply, that the nurse has too many tasks to perform in such a short time. She must hold the needle, syringe, tubing, caps and tape when the various IV procedures are undertaken. To replace the IV tubing everytime the line infiltrates or is blocked is not cost effective, which also leads to potential contamination at tubing-ends and cannula ends.